


For Worse or For Better

by aurons_fan



Series: The Misadventures of Rooming with Friends [10]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 00:05:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3588903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurons_fan/pseuds/aurons_fan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Room selection is a stressful time for everyone, with midterms and other things piling up. Of course, other issues can pop up as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Mmm, we’re heading towards the end of the year! Man. I do love these kids. They’re so goofy. 
> 
> Also if you’re wondering if room selection is really that stressful, either a) your school is amazing and I hate you or b) you haven’t gone through it. 
> 
> Title from Taylor Swift's, “How You Get The Girl.” The full lyrics is “I want you for worse or for better” but that’s a long title.

As Riku sat at his desk in the middle of paper for one of his classes, Sora let out a sound like a wounded animal and flopped onto Riku’s bed. 

To Riku’s credit, he didn’t even glance over. “What?” he asked, continuing to skim over his notes as he typed.

Sora frowned and placed a hand in front of Riku’s computer screen, causing him to look up. “We have a problem,” he said. Riku finally tugged his headphones out of his ears and Sora nodded over to the laundry pile.

It should be noted that they both had their own laundry baskets, but sometime in the beginning of this semester, Sora had been like “Dude, we’re dating, why can’t we do laundry together? It’s cheaper that way,” and Riku hadn’t really responded because Sora had brought up the idea while sucking a hickey into Riku’s neck. Either way, the next time, they did their laundry together.

Riku glanced over to the pile and winced. “Okay, maybe we haven’t done laundry in a while,” he admitted and shrunk when Sora’s gaze narrowed. “Okay, it’s been weeks. But I’m sure we can hold off one more week.” He turned back to his computer, putting in his headphones.

Before he could turn on any music, Sora coughed, and Riku looked over. The brunet tugged one of the drawers open and waved a hand inside.

Riku frowned. “You can’t have run out of clothing already,” he said and Sora laughed.

“This is your drawer, Riku.”

Riku frowned even further, but Sora was right. Sora then went to his side of the room and flung open his closest, only to show the only things left were coats. Unable to deny the truth when it was right in front of him, Riku grumbled, and slammed his laptop shut, reaching for his backpack. He’d just work on the paper in the lounge by the laundry room.

He went to grab the laundry pile and their bag of quarters (which became _their_ bag when Sora kept trying to weasel out of using his student points because they were better for candy and wasn’t it _Riku’s_ turn to pay for laundry this week?), when Sora shook his head.

“We can’t do laundry in dirty clothes,” he said, grabbing the bottom of Riku’s shirt. “Come on. Off, off, off.”

Riku grumbled, but allowed his shirt to be tugged off. “Wait a minute,” he said, as Sora chucked the shirt into the pile. “But I don’t have anything left to wear.” Riku paused, before narrowing his eyes. “Unless you planned this.”

Sora waved a hand and dug into his closet, before pulling out a few dusty shirts. They looked vaguely familiar, in the way college student accumulate millions of t-shirts over the course of a year but all eventually mesh together. Riku continued scowling when Sora tossed him one.

Grinning, Sora pulled off his own shirt and tugged into one that proudly stated, UNCLE SCROOGE'S SEA SALT ICE CREAM. “Is something wrong?” he asked innocently, and Riku’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“This is going to be _tiny_ on me,” Riku grumbled. Sora continued fluttering his eyes innocently, until Riku sighed and tugged on the shirt. He could feel his muscles practically tearing at the fabric, and he pointy ignored Sora’s grin. Before Sora could offer some horrible tight pants Riku would regret for the rest of his life, Riku reached in his closet and grabbed a pair school sweatpants he’d bought and never ended up wearing.

It wasn’t until he turned around did he notice Sora awkwardly glancing to the side. “Uh,” Sora said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Can I borrow a pair of your pants, if you have any clean ones left?”

\--

An hour or so later, Kairi found Riku and Sora crowded around a small table in the longue outside of the laundry machines. She waved from across the room and approached. She took one look at them before bursting out in laughter.

“Shush!” some kid from a few tables over hissed, before angrily turning back to his work.

Kairi rolled her eyes and plopped at the table with them. “Guys,” she whispered, grinning. “What the hell are you wearing?”

Riku didn’t even dignify her with an answer. That, or he was still traumatized over the leering looks he got when they had come down to the laundry room. It seemed like every person they passed was trying to see through his already skin-tight shirt.

Sora shook his head. “Laundry day,” he said, before an alarm went off on his phone. “Crap. I’ll move the stuff to the dryer, okay?” Without waiting for an answer, Sora leaned over and kissed Riku’s cheek, before hopping up from the table, taking care to hold up his borrowed basketball shorts.

Kairi watched him walk away and grinned over to Riku, who was still not answering.

Before Kairi could force him to say something, there was a very loud, very dramatic huff. Out of nowhere, Hayner flopped into the fourth chair and gave them all very sad looks.

“Guys,” he whispered, more out of drama then for respect for the quiet atmosphere of the room. “Who will I live with next year?”

Kairi leaned back in her chair, humming. “Room selection is coming up, isn’t it?” she mused.

Realizing that he couldn’t keep pretending that his music was on, Riku tugged his headphones off and gave a slight sympathetic nod towards Hayner. “I’m sure you’ll find a roommate,” he said. Hayner’s eyes grew wide and he started to lean towards Riku, and Riku started to lean away. “Just not with me.”

“Hey!” Sora said, falling into his chair.

Hayner turned to him. “Sora, are we friends?” he asked, eyes wide.

“Of course!” Sora said, frowning. “Why, what’s up?” Riku shook his head beside him but Sora choose to ignore that.

Hayner grabbed his arm. “Can we live together in a triple?”

“Er,” Sora said, wiggling out of his grip. Which was fairly difficult because jeez, Hayner could be strong when necessary. “No. Unless you want to live traumatized every day when you realize you live with a couple.”

Hayner paused and leaned back. “That’s… a good point.” He dropped his head on the table and started mock crying. Riku and Kairi exchanged looks as Sora tried to awkwardly pat his shoulder, before Hayner popped his head up and gave Sora a strange look. “By the way, what the hell is up with your pants?”

Scowling, Sora removing his hand and turned back to his work.

\--

“Listen up, peons!”

Dinner was the usual affair of racing to the dining hall and hoping that the giant circle table was opened (or Sora conning whoever was already sitting there to move with smiles and grins).

Hayner knelt on his chair to give himself a slight advantage over the rest of the group. Granted, that would imply any of them were listening to him, which he quickly made sure they did by slamming his hands on the table.

“Room selection is coming up and someone needs to love me,” he said, attempting to make eye contact everyone at the table.

Tidus looked like he was about to say something Sora piped up first. “Guys, you realize we’re going to have the _worst_ rooms, right? Like, sophomores literally have worst numbers than freshman. We’re going to get stuck in this dorm. _Again_.”

Hayner’s eyes widened in horror.

Riku smiled slightly, leaning back in his seat. “Oh, did I forget to tell you I have junior standing?” When Hayner’s head whipped over to look at him, Riku held up his hands. “Just means I came in with AP Credits and it puts me at a higher grade. Aka…”

“Better rooms!” Kairi said with a grin, holding her hand up for a high five. “I have junior standing too.”

“Okay, well, that’s _great for you guys_ ,” Hayner said, scowling. “But as I’m not living with Riku and Sora, and unless you and Olette want a third roommate…?” He turned to Kairi, whose eyes narrowed. “Okay, okay, _fine_. No to that. So, …”

With herculean effort, Hayner turned over to Roxas, who was leaning on Axel. Roxas raised an eyebrow and let out a short laugh. “You really want to live with me again?”

“I mean,” Hayner said, shivering slightly. “It’s not like I see you guys. Much.”

Axel shrugged. “Sorry dude. Demyx invited us to live in that off-campus house. What did he call it again?” He said, poking Roxas’s cheek.

Roxas rolled his eyes and slapped his hand away. “The Organization, you idiot.”

Axel nodded. “Yep. That’s the one. Sorry dude.”

Hayner sniffled, and attempted to give a strong face. “Whatever, I didn’t need you guys anyway,” he said, before sitting normally on the chair and staring down at his food. “I don’t need _friends_ or _rooms_ or…”

“Hey!” Tidus cut in, waving a hand across the table. “Apparently, if you’re on the blitzball team, you get first pick of rooms. I’m planning to live in this really nice apartment over on the west side of campus and…”

Before Tidus could finish, Hayner shot him a deadly look. “Rub it in, why don’t you,” he said, scowling. “Who needs enemies when I have friends like _you_?”

Tidus rolled his eyes but kept going. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to be my roommate,” he paused. “I mean apartment mate. That sounds so dumb. Either way, I was going to ask if you and Pence might want to move in with me?”

Hayner went quiet for a long time, long enough that everyone at table turned to look at him. After a while, he looked up, bottom lip quivering. “ _Yesssss_ ,” he said, eyes watering. “You are a true bro.”

Tidus nodded, and they reached across the table to fist bump. “You’re my bro, bro.”

“Stop that,” Kairi said, rolling her eyes. “Some of us are trying to eat.”

\--

A few days later, Riku was chilling on his bed, reading a book, while Sora sat at his desk, typing away at his computer.

Or at least, that what Riku assumed Sora was doing, until Sora’s face appeared in front of Riku’s book.

“Yes?” Riku said, lowering the book. “What’s up?”

“What’s your book about?” Sora said, grinning. Riku rolled his eyes and tucked his bookmark into the page, before dropping it on his desk.

“You only say that when you don’t _want_ me to be reading anymore,” he said, moving so his back was against the wall. “Why, do you have a better plan?”

Sora straddled Riku and shrugged innocently. “I dunno,” he said, before leaning down and kissing him. “I have a few ideas.”

Riku resisted rolling his eyes, and wrapped his arms around Sora’s back. When Sora started kissing down his neck, Riku exhaled softy and gently pulled Sora away.

“What brought all this on?” he asked, before shaking his head. “Not that I don’t want this, but is something up?”

Sora hummed and leaned back on his knees. “Well,” he said, tilting his head and smiling. “It’s been a while, and I thought that it would be nice if we thought about having sex soon.”

Riku did his best to not choke, but he had to admit his voice probably sounded a little strained. “Really?” he said, trying to keep the waver out of his voice.

“Yep,” Sora said, fixing Riku with a look. “I don’t mean right _now_ , because I do still have a paper to finish but like… you know. I’m up for it, if you are.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, before Riku let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Yeah,” he said. Sora grinned and ran his hands through Riku’s hair. “I’d be up to thinking about that.”

“Great,” Sora said, before gently tugging on Riku’s hair and pulling him in for another kiss. “Now, I _do_ have a paper to write but I don’t want to be _that_ asshole, sooo.” He climbed off of Riku and hopped off the bed, moving to kneel in front of where Riku was sitting.

Riku choked. “You don’t have-” he stammered, as Sora reached up and began unbuckling Riku’s belt. “Sora, seriously, it’s fine.”

Sora grinned. “Well, that’s good. Unless you don’t want me to…?” he started, frowning. “Geez, here I am, talking about how we should _talk_ about sex, and now I’m just tugging off your pants. I’m sorry. I totally should have asked first.”

Riku grabbed at Sora’s hand and squeezed it. “Sora, I mean…” Riku flushed, and he was sure he was turning completely red. Or maybe his body was on fire. He certainly felt like it. “I _do_ want you to, but I don’t want to push you into doing anything you don’t want to,” he said. Then he gasped because apparently that was all the permission Sora needed to start caressing Riku through his denim.

Sora let out a soft laugh. “Riku, I _want_ to do this,” he said, and Riku dropped his hand in shock. Sora tugged Riku’s pants off and grinned again. “Besides,” he said, smirking up to Riku, who had successfully turned as red as a ripe tomato. “You think I haven’t done this before?”

Before Riku could actually process what Sora had just said, all he could feel was wet, hot warmth and jerked his hips off the bed. Sora hummed, and holy _shit_ , Riku could feel it vibrating through him, and he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to relax.

And, of course, that was that moment that the door unlocked and Roxas walked in. His eyes widened at the scene in front of him, and he raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know whether to kick Riku’s ass or congratulate you both,” he said, sounding conflicted.

Sora pulled off of Riku with a soft _pop_ that sounded so loud to Riku as Roxas continued staring at them from the doorway. “Roxas,” Sora said, voice oddly calm. “What are you doing here? And can you at least _shut the door_?” Roxas shrugged, kicking the door with his foot.

Riku tried to stuff himself back into his pants and tried not to will the floor to swallow him whole. “How did you even get in?” He asked, not even looking at the blond.

“Hmmm, I could ask you something similar, couldn’t I?” Roxas said, grinning. Riku flushed and Sora stood, crossing his arms. Roxas held his hands up in the air. “Fine, fine. Did you know that you can have almost key duplicated at a hardware store?” Roxas grinned, and held up his key. “I’ll call this… the kingdom key.”

“Give me that,” Sora said, eyes narrowing.

Roxas held up his hands. “Look, I just have a request…”

“That you burst into our room for?” Riku said. When Roxas smirked, Riku held up a hand. “Please don’t make a sexual innuendo,” he said, shaking his head. “Just don’t.”

Roxas shrugged. “Fine. Look…” he said, beginning to fidget. It was telling from the fact that Roxas was more uncomfortable asking them for a favor than he was _breaking into their room_ , but hey, that was Roxas. “Hayner said you’re really good at math, being a finance major and all, and I have a Calc midterm in a few days. Do you think you could help?”

Riku and Sora exchanged looks, before Sora covered his face with his hands. “You couldn’t have texted?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. “You couldn’t have _knocked_?!”

Roxas frowned. “Well, I mean, I could, but where’s the fun in that?” Sora shot him a look that could have killed a lesser man and Riku winced.

“Look, it’s fine,” Riku said, shaking his head. “Did you want to study now?”

Sora turned to Riku, bottom lip quivering. “Seriously?” he said, looking up to RIku, eyes wide. “We were just getting _started_.”

Riku had to remind himself that Roxas was literally right behind them and closed his eyes. “Yeah, but if we do anything now, Roxas will probably just bust in again and I don’t think my heart can take that a second time,” he admitted.

Sora nodded. “Fine,” he said, before turning to Roxas. “If you don’t give me that key, I will…” he frowned. “I’ll tell mom what you did.”

Roxas shot him a look. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Sora shrugged and held out his hand. “Key, or we see how forgiving she is.”

Grumbling, Roxas dropped the key in Sora’s hand, before moving to head out the door. “Also, why weren’t you using a condom?” Roxas said, turning back into the room. “When Axel gave you all those condoms, I expected you guys to practice safe sex, not just go ahead willy nilly…”

Sora grabbed a pair of scissors from his desk drawer and Riku did the unthinkable and saved Roxas by tugging him out of the room and quickly shutting the door behind him.

\--

Roxas was silent on the walk to the study room, something Riku was incredibly grateful for. He really didn’t think he could handle listening to Roxas mock, threaten, or a combination of both as muddled Riku’s own brain was. Before they went inside, Riku reached for Roxas’s arm.

“Sora…” Riku started, and Roxas grinned and raised his eyebrow. “Stop that. You went from threatening me to this? It’s so… _creepy_.” Riku shivered. “Anyway, Sora said he’d…” Riku paused, unsure of how to phrase, ‘has had sex with other people.’

Roxas seemed to understand and shrugged out of Riku’s grip, giving him a look. “I _told_ you he’d dated other people before,” Roxas said giving him a look. “What, did you think I lied or something?”

“No,” Riku said, flushing. “I guess I just didn’t put two and two together…” He shook his head and opened the door, where, despite the fact that it was a quiet study room, there were people shouting.

Roxas peeked inside past Riku and rolled his eyes. “Oh my god,” he said, “they would be here.”

‘They’ consisted of Kairi and Hayner, who were standing up at opposite ends of a table and shouting. Hayner was all flailing arms and exaggerated movements, while Kairi kept viciously pointing to her laptop.

Riku winced. “I mean, we could go to the library…” he said, moving to close the door.

“And go out in that snow storm?” Roxas scoffed, shoving past Riku. “Hell no.”

Somewhere in the middle of the table, Olette and Tidus were working. Well, Tidus had headphones in and Olette was attempting to use her sweatshirt as a cover to block the noise. When Hayner and Kairi took a break from shouting to acknowledge Riku and Roxas, Olette looked grateful.

“You guys seem exceptionally loud today,” Riku mused, dropping his backpack on a nearby table. “You do realize there are other people here right?”

Kairi glanced around and flushed, before tuning back to Riku. “It’s not my fault. Hayner brought up… something _so_ stupid and it bothered me and…”

“The dining hall food,” Hayner added from his end of the table. “Is poisoning us.”

Kairi gritted her teeth. “It is _not_ and if you’d just _listen_ to me….”

“Look,” Roxas said, apparently trying this new role of peacemaker, much to Riku’s terror. “You’ve dragged Tidus and Olette here. And I’m assuming you were going to study together…?”

“Work on projects,” Tidus said, scowling at Kairi. “We have a series of articles due in _two days_ and she can’t stop fighting with Hayner.”

“I’m only here to help _you_ out with some coding, but if you don’t need me...” Olette said to Hayner, who looked stricken at her attempt to leave.

Before Hayner or Kairi could react, Roxas held up is hands. “Look,” he said calmly. Riku was a little frightened over at his table, but did nothing to intervene. “Maybe if you two could hold off your flirting until your projects or assignments are done, your partners wouldn’t kill you.”

Hayner’s eyes bugged out of his head and Kairi started stammering. “E-excuse me?” she said, eyes widening as well.

Roxas shrugged, attempting to seem innocent. “I may have been blind about my brother,” he said, with an angelic air. Riku tried not to snort. “But you two are as obvious as the weather outside is frightful. Also,” he glanced over to Hayner. “If you could stop talking about Kairi anytime we were both home, that would be _awesome._ ”

Hayner and Kairi continued sputtering. They looked over to each other, scowled, and then moved to sit next to their study/group partner and didn’t say another word to each other.

With a shrug, Roxas moved to sit next to Riku, who gave him a look. “What?” Roxas said, shrugging. “They weren’t going to shut up and I need to do well on this test.”

\--

A few days later, Riku was at the library, already feeling waves of stress. He and his partner, strangely enough, a blonde girl named Rikku, were practicing their business presentation that they had to give in a few hours. It didn’t matter how many times he practiced, he still felt like he was forgetting something.

So when his phone went off for the tenth time in less than five minutes, Rikku threw down her cards and gave him a look. “Can you answer that?” she said, frowning. “It might be important!”

Riku nodded. “Yeah, yeah, sorry. Hello?” he said, not even bothering to check who was calling, instead focusing on his cards.

“Riku?! You literally have _five minutes_ to get to our housing appointment before we lose our spot!”

Riku blinked. He pulled the phone away, noted that it said _Sora_ , also noted the time, and let out a loud string of profanity that wouldn't be very polite to repeat here.

“I’ll be there in four!” he said, before chucking his phone in his bag and gathering his stuff. “Rikku, sorry, housing…!”

Rikku’s eyes widened and she waved her hands like “go, go go!” and he raced out of the library.

Three minutes and fifty-nine seconds, Riku stumbled beside Sora in the upper floors of the student union and they raced to the front desk. The woman gave them a look before ushering them into the small waiting section with other students who were only _slightly_ less panicked then Riku and Sora.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” Sora started. “We’re not going to get anything.”

“Sora, stop it,” Riku said, heart racing front running over, seeing Sora’s stress, _and_ the stress of everyone else. “It’s going to be fine.”

“We’re going to be stuck in a quad,” Sora hissed, eyes wide, “ _with freshman_.”

Even though that was probably not going to happen, Riku’s mind momentarily thought it would and he just gulped when Sora leaned against him, twitching.

“Riku? Sora?” A voice said from the front of the room. They both jumped out of their chairs so fast the chairs fell behind them. The woman laughed and ushered them into another small room, where they all but collapsed into chairs. “I’m Aerith, and I’m going to be your guide through the housing process. What locations shall we begin with?”

Sora’s eyes continued to widen and he said something like “Blarhalsc” and fell against Riku. Riku turned to Aerith, unsure of how to react, and she smiled again.

“This is a junior time slot,” she said, before giving them both a look. “Are you guys freshman?” They nodded quickly. She laughed. “No wonder you both seem so nervous.” She grabbed something behind her, before offering them both cookies. “Now, how about we walk through what you’re looking for?”

\--

“See, that wasn’t so bad,” Sora said, munching on his third cookie as they walked out of the room.

Riku rolled his eyes and gave Sora a gentle shove. “You’re the one who practically passed out.”

“Did not,” he said, before noticing Kairi and Olette. He waved, and they both walked over. “We got a suite in the Eraqus building,” he said. “Ninth floor.”

“Suite?” Kairi echoed, and Riku laughed like he hadn’t asked the same question only a few minutes before.

“We got a two person room with one bathroom,” Sora responded, pumping his fist. “No more communal showers!”

“Ninth floor?” Olette echoed, nodding and jotting something on a notepad. “Perfect. We were thinking there as well.” At Sora and Riku’s confused expressions, she grinned. “They had floor plans in the housing office. Didn’t you know?”

Both Riku and Sora exchanged looks and Riku shrunk ever so slightly. “No…” Sora said, before rubbing his neck. “I thought you just kind of winged it.”

Kairi grinned. “I guess it’s a good thing that you guys have junior standing!”

She brushed a piece of hair out of her face and Sora’s eyes widened focusing on a point on her neck. “Wait a minute,” he said, eyes widened, “What is that on your neck?”

Riku turned to look at her as Kairi’s face grew red. “Nothing!” she said, quickly moving the hair back over it.

Sora’s eyes narrowed. “Cause that looks like a hickey—”

Aerith called Kairi’s name and she all but ran into the housing room, with Olette hurrying behind her. Riku and Sora exchanged looks, before Sora turned to look where the girls had disappeared.

“I’ll kill him,” Sora said, low and dangerous, and sounding too much like Roxas for Riku’s comfort.

\--

That night at dinner, Sora and Riku approached their usual table, where Hayner, Tidus, Pence, Olette, Roxas, and Kairi were were seated. Hayner was in the middle of laughing at something Tidus had said when Sora grabbed a knife off the table and held it to Hayner’s throat, stopping his laughter.

“Are you dating Kairi?” he said, eye twitching, as Riku rounding the table and sat beside Tidus.

“What the hell has happened with your boyfriend?” Tidus hissed. Riku shrugged, as Hayner’s eyes widened.

“Uh,” Hayner said, trying to inch away from the knife, but Sora only tilted his head and held firm. “Uh, maybe?” Sora inched the knife closer. “Yes? I mean yes?!”

“Kairi is one of my oldest friends,” Sora said softly, moving closer to Hayner. “And you know all the torture and threats that Roxas promised Riku if he did anything to me?” Sora grinned. “If you do anything to her, you’ll wish I was that kind.”

With that, he put the knife down and moved around the table to sit next to Riku, leaning against him. Everyone at the table turned to Sora, eyes wide, and Sora continued grinning.

Well, almost everyone. Kairi had dropped her head in her hands, and Roxas shrugged, grabbing a fry off Hayner’s plate. “Why does everyone believe I’m the evil one in the family?” he mused aloud. “Where do you guys think I got it from?”

Riku’s eyes widened even more and Sora leaned up and kissed his cheek.

“…Anyway,” Tidus said, shaking his head. “Why don’t you tell us how you asked her out, Hayner?”

“Or,” Olette cut in, “how she asked him out?”

“Right,” Tidus nodded, a little more than necessary. “Just anything to change the subject so we don’t have to think about two little demon spawn at our table.”

Hayner looked over to Sora, shivered, and looked back. “I uh… I asked her to play Mario Kart,” he said, staring down at his plate. “And I sent a blue shell on her when she was winning.” Everyone hissed and Hayner looked up, scowling. “What? Mario Kart is a good game!”

“You don’t sic a blue shell on someone you want to date!” Pence chimed in.

Kairi threw her hands in the air. “That’s what I said!”

Hayer scowled. “Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

Kairi blushed, slowly turning red.

Roxas grinned. “I guess I should continue to stay over Axel’s for another few nights?”

And no one felt even the slightest bit bad when Kairi chucked her glass of water at his face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I am literally the only person in the Hayner/Kairi tag. It’s so awkward. Someone join me.
> 
> But this is after the study room fight but before the room selection process! It didn’t fit into the actual narrative but I still wanted to write this. Man. They’re fun.

The day after the discussion in the study room (or that’s at least what Hayner’s going to call it because if he were to call it a _fight_ that would imply someone had to win or lose, and he _didn’t_ lose, just because she had _charts_ and _graphs_ ), Hayner stood outside Kairi’s room door, hand in position to knock.

He was just going to ask her for a friendly rematch in Mario Kart, because she was a dirty rotten cheater, and it _clearly_ had nothing to do with what Roxas had said earlier. Because there was absolutely no way he could like someone like _her_ who used charts and graphs to argue whether or not the dining hall was slowly poisoning them.

Or who seriously didn’t think Terra’s pants were the source of all his problems.

But for some reason, he couldn’t knock. He wasn’t nervous, _obviously_ , but for some reason he was stuck staring at her door, eyes twitching as he attempted to will himself to do so.

So when she opened the door, she was just as shocked as he was.

“What… are you doing here?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

He blinked. “You cheated at Mario Kart,” he said, matter-of-factly.

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry that you’re a horrible gamer but no, I did _not_ cheat. Excuse me.” She made to move past him.

“No wait!” She turned and he huffed. “Look, I’m sorry. I just… I wanted to know if you wanted to have a rematch. Soonish.” He glanced down at his phone. “Actually, like now.” She gave him a strange look, and he waved his hands. “I just mean, I’m free, and unless you’re heading to class… or work… or whatever you’re maybe heading, then maybe you have a second?”

After a long stare, she shrugged and grinned. “Sure, why not?” she said. “Let me just run to the bathroom, and I’ll head up with you.” He gave her a look, and she rolled her eyes. “Did you think I just randomly opened my door for no reason?”

\--

This whole, “lemme beat Kairi and show her who is the best at Mario Kart” plan wasn’t working. Neither was the more secret plan (so secret that even Hayner wasn’t sure of it) of wooing Kairi. They were both kind of failures, considering Kairi was kicking his ass six ways to Sunday. And she didn’t even look like she was breaking a sweat.

Though she did look super intense, and her hands were gripping the controller so hard that he was afraid that she would break it.

That, and the fact that she was first place and he was kind of failing at fifth place. Man, he really needed to figure out what he was doing here.

After navigating the jump in Bowser’s Castle (because if that wasn’t timed right he’d fall into lava, and he didn’t want to think about how that was reflecting his life at the current moment), he decided that enough was enough, and leaned over and kissed her cheek.

The game paused. Hayner blinked and leaned back to see Kairi looking like she was literally about to explode. “How _dare_ you attack to distract me in the heat of battle,” she hissed, low and menacing, before tuning back to the screen and unpausing the game.

Hayner winced and continuing racing. Alright. She was incredibly intense. A lot more so then when Pence and Olette were also playing.

Even so, had has no right to be that into it, she was _winning_ and he had finally made it to measly third place. He ran into one of the item boxes and after a long internal debate at how fair it was, sent a blue shell after her.

A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

He didn’t even look over when she shrieked, her cart going in the air with the impact of the blue shell and he kept racing, wondering if maybe he could actually win this. But not even a moment later, her cart was right behind him. He risked a glance over to see her leaning closer to the television, eyes narrowed and focused.

If looks could kill, his TV would be in flames.

He wasn’t really sure _how_ the heck she ended up wining, but when she did, with him getting second place only .0001 seconds after her, she all but flung the controller and jabbed a finger at his chest. “And you said that _I cheated_ , you _cheating asshole._ How does it feel to lose even when you’re a _cheating liar_?”

“Uh, uh, uh,” Hayner stammered, leaning away from her. He didn’t even mean to squeeze his eyes shut, but when she hadn’t cut him, he cracked one eye opened to see her leaning back on her knees, confused expression on her face.

“Wait,” she mused, tapping her chin. “You kissed me.” She narrowed her eyes. “What was that for?”

Hayner debated just saying it was a distraction, admitting she won fair and square, and giving up on this, because he was clearly failing. But after a moment, he flushed and Kairi’s eyes widened. Before she could say anything, he quickly said, “Uh, will you go out with me. Like, on dates and stuff,” he quickly clarified. “Like, where we can consume food that isn’t poisonous dining hall food or see movies or … I dunno. Date stuff.”

Kairi blushed and he ran a hand through his hair because that could’ve gone a lot better (seriously? _Date stuff?_ ), and she laughed. “Wait,” she said, grinning. “Was this a date?”

“Of course not!” He said, but she’s still grinning and, okay, he was a little confused. “Sora said dates like this were lame.”

Kairi rolled her eyes. “Sora’s a romantic sap,” she said, smiling. “This was fun. Besides the cheating.” She narrowed her eyes. “And sending a blue shell after me. Jerk.”

He grinned back and then moved to go set up Super Smash Bros, because besides the whole failure (or success?) of the date, she was an awesome person to play against, before moving back beside her. She had moved to lean against his bed and he sat down next to her, awkwardly putting an arm around her.

She glanced at the arm, before smirking over to him. “Good luck trying to beat me with one arm out of commission,” she said.

His arm snapped back to his controlled so fast it wasn’t even funny. “I will _win_ ,” he seethed.

Kairi raised an eyebrow. “Good luck with that…” As they were picking their characters (Kairi was Link, was Hayner, of _course_ , went with Ganondorf. He half thought about the coincidence, but shook his head), Kairi glanced over to him. “If I win,” she said, “Will you admit that you were bullshitting about Terra’s pants the whole time?”

Hayner sputtered indignantly. “Uh, I got _points_ for using that as an answer. So no. Besides, you have to admit that I’m kind of right.”

He turned, pulling out the mental note cards of all the reasons why Terra’s pants were evil, but she leaned over and tugged him over for a kiss. His eyes widened, and she moved back.

“Just wondering,” she said, smiling, and turning her attention back to the television. “Have fun losing.”

He shook his head, trying to focus on the game, and gripped his controller. Despite the fighting atmosphere, he grinned. “Oh. It’s on.”


End file.
